- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Governor signs bill to help provide homeless with housing, services
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A new bill signed by the governor will help communities across California – including Lake County – address the needs of the homeless by providing funds for housing and other services.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law the “No Place Like Home Initiative” on July 1.
It's being hailed as a landmark bipartisan legislative initiative that will provide housing and services for homeless Californians.
State Sen. Mike McGuire, whose district includes Lake County, was part of the State Senate team who brought forward and drafted the initiative.
McGuire said the bill will provide communities – big and small – resources for desperately needed permanent supportive housing, and mental health and drug and alcohol treatment services.
McGuire praised the governor for signing the legislation, noting that homelessness is a growing crisis across California, in cities and rural areas alike, with communities lacking the funding to implement the necessary programs.
“This investment is the largest in a generation and it will give communities up and down the North Coast the ability to create and fund local housing programs that meet their unique needs,” he said.
The initiative re-purposes bond money from Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act, and will leverage billions of additional dollars from other local, state and federal agencies according to the initiative's Web site, http://focus.senate.ca.gov/homelessness .
No Place Like Home will offer a $2 billion bond to construct permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless persons with mental illness.
In addition, $45 million – already included in the recently enacted state budget – will provide supportive housing in the shorter-term as well as rent subsidies while permanent housing is constructed or rehabilitated.
Another $22 million, also included in the new 2016-17 state budget, will provide specific support for two special housing programs targeting families: The “Bringing Families Home” pilot project, a county matching grant program to reduce homelessness among families that are part of the child welfare system, and the CalWORKs Housing Support Program, which provides housing and support services for CalWORKs families in danger of homelessness.
The legislative package also will provide for additional work to stop people from becoming homeless in the first place, with $75 million in the new budget to go toward that homelessness prevention effort.
Another $45 million in the budget to be used for a one-time investment to incentivize local governments to boost outreach efforts and advocacy to get more eligible poor people enrolled in the SSI/SSP program.
The legislation's Web site notes that the federal government covers 72 percent of the total costs of the SSI/SSP program, so state and local benefits are multiplied significantly for each newly eligible recipient.
McGuire said the No Place Like Home Initiative has been among his top priorities this year.
Earlier this year, McGuire hosted a first-of-its-kind homeless services roundtable with leaders from throughout the North Bay and North Coast as well as representatives from the state to discuss their unique challenges, ideas and programs to tackle homelessness.
He told Lake County News that communities across the state will be able to apply for assistance from the initiative.
Rural areas like Lake, that over the last several decades have had to compete with larger metropolitan areas for funding, won't under this initiative, McGuire said.
“From the beginning we have been advocating that rural counties have their separate pot of funds,” he said.
The initiative will be one of the first bonds to have separate funds for rural areas, and separate funds for suburban and large communities, he explained.
“Lake County will be able to apply for these funds with like-sized counties and they will not have to go against large counties – San Bernardino, San Francisco, Santa Clara or Los Angeles,” McGuire said.
That's critical because, he added, “We're seeing a growing number of individuals who are homeless and small counties don't have the resources to be able to invest, whether it's in services or housing.”
In Lake County in recent years the homeless problem has become more visible, and appears to be growing.
The situation led to the Lake Ministerial Association hosting a warming shelter at the Lakeport Seventh-day Adventist Church from January through the start of April, as Lake County News has reported.
McGuire said there is “a lot of freedom” for communities in how they choose to pursue the funds, but one critical part is that the county will have to develop a homeless service plan as a basis for applying.
“That's the really important part of this,” he said, adding that Lake County already has been doing a lot of legwork on such needs, which will mean state funding can be implemented more quickly.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development will run the program on behalf of the state. McGuire noted that the agency “is very involved in Lake County already because of the Valley fire recovery and rebuilding efforts.”
McGuire said he will host a workshop/town hall in the fall in Ukiah that will focus on the No Place Like Home initiative. All the specifics related to the application processes in the various funds will be explained.
All community members, elected officials, nonprofit and local government leaders from throughout the district will be invited to participate, McGuire said.
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